Thank you to Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group for providing me the opportunity to read and review this ARC!

I can not put into words how this book made me feel. This was absolutely beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time and that’s why I loved it so much. I could not get enough of it, truly. The writing style was so beautiful and descriptive, with lots of imagery and emotion. I felt like scenes and settings were described in such great detail and in such an artful way where I could see it unfolding in my head. The writing was truly atmospheric and also keeps you hooked into the story. The story was also thrilling and intriguing. There were some horror and suspense elements that I enjoyed and that made the story stay interesting.

I absolutely loved the premise of the story and Evander and Laurie. Their constant pull towards each other was so satisfying to read about and I loved how it was revealed on why that was. Their story is so beautiful and heartbreaking as well, I just could not get enough of them. They are both truly misunderstood boys, and their families are a**holes who didn’t even give them a chance. I hated everyone in the story but them two. I was giggling and kicking my feet, crying, holding my breath, and YEARNING for them. I just love how their story unfolded and how they came to be. This author really knows how to pull you in and really feel for characters, which is so great.

Overall, I adored this book and will be thinking about it for a long time I feel. I hope to read more by this author, and I encourage anyone who enjoys thriller and horror, to read this when it comes out in October!





⚠️Spoilers!⚠️
I’d have to say my favorite character is the garden. The garden has such depth to it and I loved the way it was tied to Evander, it really gave it a unique and touching feel. Laurie making Evander was so unique as well and their bond was beautiful. The garden was used by the family for greed and you could tell it did not like that. Making the garden have emotions was very special. I loved it so much

When I tell you I am obsessed!!! Ahh I have fallen in love with CG Drew’s writing! Step into a world where flora runs wild! Botanical body horror, amazing characters, and a wonderful plot!

This read was absolutely immaculate! It’s been sitting on my tablet for far too long quite frankly, but I just have not had a moment to slip into botanical horror and this Book does not disappoint! I have a copy pre-ordered already I knew I was gonna love it and I absolutely did!

CG Drew’s writes amazing characters and evil will truly feel like you know them inside and out as you read the story! And the story the story is just absolutely wonderful! I was hooked start to finish and I just could not put it down! I’m definitely gonna have to do a reread of both Hazelthorn, and don’t let the forest in at some point in October for more spooky vibes!

Definitely a book that you need someone to read with you just so you have someone that you can yell at whenever something crazy happens! A thank you to my brother for having no idea what I was talking about, but still listening to me rant about how amazing this book was!

5⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This book was a page turner the monsters in the garden whew so juicy kept me at the edge of my seat!! The mental in the characters came with such a force everyone should read this one

I did not finish this book. The writing was really good, but I had a hard time getting invested in the story. I felt like there was too much mystery to the point where I was just confused instead of anticipating something crazy happening. I think it's a good book, but I'm just not the right audience. Cover is beautiful though.

There are parts of this book I really enjoyed. I thought it had a really clear depiction of the internal dialogue of someone with mental health issues. I loved the vivid descriptions the author gave to everything on every page, and I adored the cat-and-mouse game the author played with the reader about what really happened to Laurie and Evander. That being said, I found myself kinda emotionally checked out once I found out what happened in the garden all those years ago. It didn't quite make sense to me that, even though Evander's memories of that afternoon were mostly vivid, he craved Laurie so much; a boy that still to this day torments him so. Honestly, I also kept forgetting this story took place in modern times in New England, it seemed better placed in England in a time before the internet/phones.

Gorgeous, Gothic, Nature Horror rich with mystery, family drama, wealth and romance.
Lush and creepy.
Evander only remembers life after Laurie attempted to bury him alive. Since he has been kept locked in his room. Medicated. Why?
Crumbs of truth pepper the plot. I couldn't put it down.

This was everything I wanted it to be and more! The isolated house big enough to get lost in, a monstrous garden fighting its way inside, a family with enough secrets to bury a person… it’s ya gothic horror at its finest. It was so atmospheric and immersive with lush prose and eerie, sinister plots working in the background.

Confined to his room, drugged and controlled, Evander is the heart of the story. His loneliness, his swallowed down frustration and deep yearning were felt so acutely. He has gaps in his memories but what he does remember is Laurie - his only friend in the world - trying to kill him. They’ve never been alone since but Evander can’t forget him nor does he want to. If this is obsession he’s okay with it.

I loved seeing Evander expand and take up more space and rage and finally take the things he wanted. It was raw and not at all pretty but deeply compelling and impactful. When a unexpected freedom and shocking death upended the normal order Evander is left to uncover the rotting secrets hidden just out of sight with only Laurie for help.

I had a great time reading this! The gothic atmosphere was felt in every page and I was almost as desperate as Evander to uncover the truth. The garden was a sinister mystery that was thrilling to explore. Evander and Laurie’s relationship was full of soft edges as well as thorns and I loved every minute of their exploration of one another. The stakes got higher as secrets are revealed and things get more dire and sinister by the minute. The other characters were the kind I love to hate and only added to the horror of it all once the facades were peeled away. It’s the sort of book best experienced without any spoilers so I won’t scream about the garden shears but if you’re looking for a gothic horror this will deliver. Hazelthorn climbed inside my mind and hasn’t left since.

“Pain is meant to take up space or else we wouldn’t know how to scream. Fuck making your agony silent to avoid disturbing others. Maybe they should be disturbed.”

When I was a child and we visited my mother’s side of the family out in the countryside, I would often sneak away from the gathering and venture into the forest by myself. Once inside and far away enough from the house, I would be engulfed by the primal urge to scream as loud as I could up into the dark green canopy. I felt like the trees wouldn’t mind the feralness, the lack of words that didn’t always seem enough to capture what I truly felt, that they would listen and understand the way my family never would. Reading Hazelthorn felt like screaming into the forest again, and having someone scream back just as loud, an answering commiseration of pent up rage finally let loose from its cage. There is so much to be said about how neurodivergent, queer, and other marginalized people are so often fed harmful rhetoric about what is “wrong” with us, that our emotions are meant to be tempered and our stories made palatable to a neurotypical, white, heteronormative standard, that we need to be fixed or else mask ourselves to the point of suffocation. Evander’s frustration with not only those around him but also himself felt at times like a reflection of my own childhood and even parts of my adulthood, though thankfully less so now. The hunger aspect of the narrative was also so compelling, because it’s very relevant to how marginalized individuals are starved of empathy and understanding, of the ability to tell their stories without being made to feel as if they are taking up more space than they’re allowed, of their basic fucking human rights. And when you’ve been starved of all these things and then find that acceptance, that love and support in another person or people, it’s almost a given that you’d have the urge to sink your teeth into them, to want to consume this walking, fleshy embodiment of everything you’ve ever needed and longed for. Simply being in the same space isn’t enough, the only way is if you sew yourself into their skin and have your hearts beat side by side in tandem, like redwoods intertwining their roots in order to weather storms together.

All this to say, no one is doing queer botanical gothic horror quite like CG Drews, and I am all the better for having read this book, and will continue to read anything they put out into the literary aether.

Once again CG Drew’s has done it , writting yet another book I’m couple destroyed by and obsessed with.
Hazelthorn follow the story of two childhood friends Evander and Laurie 7 years after an incident that forces them the be separated under the same roof of Laurie’s family manor. Named Hazelthorn Evander spends his days confined to his room wondering about Laurie until one day his doors unlocked leading to a series of events that changes Evander and Laurie’s lives forever.

The world building in this book is BEAUTIFUL, the manor perfectly set up with a very eerie dark, strange vibe that matched perfectly with the mysterious garden that just feels off. It’s the perfect setting for this traumatic love story to unfold in. CG Drew’s has a talent for writing damaged boys. The underlying constant self hatred, anxiety and confusion seeps through Evander connecting perfect with Laurie’s need to be seen and taken care allows them to have soft tender moments during events of absolute chaos driven by a murder mystery that’s driven by greed, vanity, guilt and selfishness..
I didn’t think after Don’t Let the Forest In I could love something so much and be so utterly crushed by it but here I am, devastatingly happy that I got to experience this story and I will forever think about it.

im not going to lie, i have no idea how to write this review without sobbing.
i already knew i was going to love this book - don't let the forest in was an absolute masterpiece and still haunts me to this day - though i didn't understand quite how much i was going to love it.
the writing was absolutely beautiful, creating an eerie atmosphere and dragging you into the core of the story from the very start. hazelthorn follow evander, a boy who has been locked up inside a room in the hazelthorn estate for as long as he can remember, as everything he thought he knew about his life changes in only one day. evander is confused, fear creeping up his spine with every step he takes outside his room, and his fear and confusion follows us, the reader, throughout the entire story.
i cannot count how many times i put this book down and allowed myself to take a few deep breaths before continuing, i only know for certain that my stomach was put in a knot at the start of this book and it only got tighter as the pages turned.
saying that the ending destroyed me would honestly be an understatement. evander and laurie are both such devastating characters, each carrying more sorrow than imaginable. i can say with confidence that their story is never going to leave my mind.
c.g. drews does such an incredible job at putting the answer right in front of your face, but still making you miss it. every time something got revealed, countless of scenes flashed through my mind and the only thing i could think about was how i could've possibly missed so many clues.
there's not much i can say to explain just how much i adore this book.
thank you so so much, netgalley and macmillan children's publishing group for providing me an arc of the best book i had the pleasure of reading this year.

Hazelthorn is literal magic.
I’m the kind of reader that once I get sucked into a story, I’m able to see it in my head, like a movie. Hazelthorn pulled me in from the dedication. The world building and the feelings oozing out of this book made it such a magical experience. I felt like I was living it with Evander and Laurie.

C G Drews knows how to write broken boys, and oh sare Evander and Laurie broken. Evander now has such a special place in my heart, he is a lovely character and the whole book I just wanted someone to show him some tenderness, and Laurie for all his bravado also just needed someone to care for him. Their pull towards each other makes so much sense, they both need someone who cared for real, who wanted to be tender to them instead of inflicting pain.

I have to say every plot twist was mind blowing, I really truly did not see any of it coming.

There’s so many things I can say about the absolute masterpiece this story is, but they would all be spoilers so all I’m going to say is read it! Hazelthorn will brake your heart over and over again, it will make you feel disappointed in the fact that people who have money and power can get away with anything, and in the end maybe you’ll feel vindicated. Or maybe like me you’ll sit for a while and stare at the wall, while you try to be ok with everything this book put you through.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC, this review is entirely my own.

"If you start unlocking doors, you might find things you don't want to see. Or worse, you might wake up."

"Pain is meant to take up space or else we wouldn't know how to scream."

Imagine being told you're too ill to do more than sit in your room. It must be true, right? You are listless day in and day out, nothing about that has changed in 7 years. Yet something feels off, wrong even. You weren't always like this, you couldn't be. You definitely weren't like this before the... You can't remember. Why can't you remember? It's as if all your previous memories were redacted... But you remember him. How could you ever forget him.

This is the first time in a while that I couldn't put a book down. I simply couldn't stop reading it! The way the author set up an air of mystery with such intrigue from the absolute beginning of the book. Yet they were able to keep building it up, page after page. More questions of how, who, why, when. More suspense and mystery. You feel like you're finally starting to gain the ability to piece together the puzzle, then another mysterious faucet of the story plops into your lap. The most intriguing part for me was the way it all fits together so seamlessly. It was very well thought out and leaves you craving more. Page after page of secrets you get to watch unfold. It's nothing short of mind-blowing and exquisite. Thank you Feiwel & Friends for providing me with this ARC for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are strictly my own. I had previously missed out on C.G Drews Don't Let the Forest In. I will adding it to the top of my TBR now and can't wait for this author to write another! This is a must read if you love a good Gothic Horror Mystery. (Make sure to check the trigger warnings before reading, it does include material that some may be sensitive to.)

oh yes. yes yes yes. this i loved. kept me hooked the whole time. for anyone that loved don't let the forest in, or even house of hollow, this is right up that dark, eerie alley

Another peculiar, gothic, atmospheric plant horror mystery from CG Drew’s. Both gruesome and engrossing, with a queer, ravenous energy taught throughout. A great fall read.

4.5 ⭐️ where do I start?! This was an absolutely crazy book, the twist and turns had me flabbergasted. I didn't know what to expect or what to believe! Absolutely loved it and I can't wait to read her next book!

I enjoyed Hazlethorn so much!! The beginning is a bit of a slow start, but once I hit 40% through, I could not stop reading and finished the remaining 60% of the book in one day.

The atmosphere is incredibly well-crafted. As the garden grows on the pages, the dread and horror seeps through and creeps into you. I’m not the biggest fan of body horror and there were definitely a couple times I was like EWWWWW. But it never got too overwhelming or too gross, for me personally.

My favorite part of this was definitely Evander and Laurie. Their dynamic and relationship felt realistic and the more they worked together to untangle the secrets of Hazelthorn, the more I loved them. Laurie especially stood out to me as such an engaging and interesting character, I would’ve loved a chapter from his POV only because I liked him so much as a character.

Hazelthorn was such a totally unique and refreshing (and occasionally horrifying) read. I had such a fun time reading it - there were multiple plot points that truly surprised me and hadn’t seen coming. I highly recommend Hazelthorn and now I need to pick up CG Drews’ first book asap!

4.5 rounded up

I loved Don't Let the Forest In, and was excited for this new book by Drews. Hazelthorn is the name of an estate, wild and overgrown gardens and mouldering old house, inhabited by an old man, Bryon Lenox-Hall, the butler, a sick orphaned teenaged boy named Evander who is Byron's ward, and (over school breaks) by Byron's grandson, Laurie. Laurie, who tried to kill Evander when they were younger and caused the trauma and health problems that Evander suffers from today.
Byron dies unexpectedly, using his dying moments to tell Evander not to go into the garden, Eventually the will is read, naming Evander as the heir to the money and the estate. The butler disappears, family members begin to show up, and Evander finds out that the garden is not simply a matter of overgrown plants but something much more sinister. Evander wants to know who killed Byron and why, but the family, the garden, and his own memory conspire to keep him from that information.
Loved this, if you enjoy a bit of horror, especially based in nature, this is the author for you!

I loved this book I am a big fan of the author and I am always eager to read their work this one did not disappoint

“If you start unlocking doors, you might find things you don’t want to see. Or worst, you might wake up.”
Thank you SO much to Macmillan, Feiwel & Friends, and CG Drews for this advanced copy of HAZELTHORN.
I remember buying Don’t Let the Forest In on a whim in the middle of the night thinking “there is nothing that could be weirder, darker, and more insane than this.”
WELL I WAS WRONG.
Evander is a young, sickly teen trapped in his cramped room of his benefactor’s crumbling mansion. When devastation rears its ugly head, he’s forced to step foot into the unknown and address some things that may be better left locked behind closed doors; including the handsome young Laurie, whom he shares a complicated past with.
The vibes in this book are immaculate- the metaphors are everything and Drews has such a way with words that makes you hear, see, feel, taste everything the characters do. This was one of the first books that actually made me feel scared.
WHAT TO EXPECT FROM HAZELTHORN:
Bisexual autistic MMC, a crumbling mansion with a scary, overgrown garden, poisons, plots, and rich family drama abound.
The vibes? Immaculate ⭐️
The garden? Overgrown 🪴
The characters? Suspicious 🤫
The mushrooms? Bioluminescent 🍄
From start to finish, this book sunk its roots into my soul and held me there, to a point where I was complaining at work to a friend that I couldn’t wait to get home and read.

"God was stronger than me when he made Adam and didn't fall in love with him."

This reads like a romance, mystery, and gothic novel all rolled into one. It has many similarities to C.G. Drews’ previous entry but is better in almost every way. I was able to read advanced copies for both and loved Hazelthorn so much more in comparison. The writing is expertly crafted with many twists that are set-up for the finale. All of which are well-established throughout the story and are satisfying enough at the end. I found myself immersed within the story and rooting for the two leads. Each one had such human qualities to them that made the book feel even more real to me. I’m really excited for a fall release of this book and will definitely be recommending it to my friends then.